This video is absolutely a MUST! It explains very clearly and in detail for each basic foundation eg fetch-water, it’s alignment in question, and how much/far does each part (kua, waist, shoulder) stretches/rotates! I am now left with no delusion/confusion as to the requirements of the basic foundations! Thank you, Master Chen again for such clarity!My humblest appreciation!

This is a great improvement over the 2009 one, but they forgot about twisting the towel.
Beyond that though there is a great deal of time is spent on the positive circle, so its a great buy for everyone.

This video is most definitely an essential one for your instructional video library. It goes through the basic foundations in great detail, and from my note taking I now have a comprehensive list of principles to follow when training the basic foundations which will be applied to yilu and to push hands. Again repeating the comments from above, this video is a MUST!

Wonderfully helpful, thanks so much for the progressive teaching style! I’ve been practicing the YiLu movements with a more “Chen Village” flavor, and so this will help me to explore the Practical Method in a clearer way… and heal many of my bad habits! Very much appreciated!

Just purchased the video yesterday, I now have the 2009 and 2013 versions. didn’t think the 2013 would be of much value to me but after reading the comments above from folks who have opinions I value, I decided to purchase. Both in tandem are great for questions and answers I had regarding basic foundations.

At about 3.40-3.55 min, lao shi says that shoulder-elbow-kua are in a line and we rotate this line. Does this mean that the axis of rotation is this line? I thought that baihui-qihai axis is the line of rotation. Plz correct me.
again In “Berlin 2012 Mini Lessons”, lao shi says that we have to create a wall. So does this shoulder-elbow-kua line forms the wall in this case?
I’ll post this comment in “Berlin 2012 Mini Lessons” too.

For me, practicing for quite a while Chen Tai Ji under master in GM Chen Qingzhou lineage, Practical Method was quite an eyes opening, and this most likely my fault, not the method I practiced or the teaching from my master. Nevertheless, I found teaching by master Chen Zhonghua is very interesting and authentic, totally making sense to me and easy to understand. All is left now is my part: practice, practice and practice. This video is the start point for me and I found it invaluable. I strongly recommend it as a must source beside in person learning with master to build good foundation!

This is amazing stuff. I am not a Taiji practitioner. I have trained mainly in Pak Mei (白眉）and Wuzuquan (五祖拳）. In the the two arts that I train in we focus a lot on the concepts of float, sink, swallow, spit. The basic foundations movements on this video really made me understand the concepts of float, sink, swallow, spit. In fact I feel these are the best exercises to understand these concepts that I never found in my own art. My Wuzuquan teacher also keeps tells us ‘not to move’ and I feel that master Chen explained this concept really well.

Thank you for the fantastic foundations video. I am making a few form adjustments after practicing Chen Tai Chi for about six years. Could anyone refer me to an explanation of the 9-point circle (positive + negative)? Thanks in advance.

I am so grateful that Chen Zhonghua, Paul Janssens, Annie Chew and Johnathan Kwan has put this foundations video together. There are so many principles that Master Chen raises in this video. The principles apply in the foundations also apply to the forms and push hands.

Listen to what he says.

Do what he says.

I purchased this video very early on in my study of Practical Method and stuck to as many key principles as I could remember. Every time I feel that my foundations have changed, I come back to this video and check what principles my body is capable of and what it still needs to learn.